With festival season on the horizon, you might be ready to scream 'party!' but your wallet may be feeling a little less enthusiastic. If that’s the case, why not try a different route and earn that precious wristband.

Due to the sheer mass of people, stalls, cars and space involved in hosting a festival, organisers rely on volunteers who earn their ticket through working – this could be as a steward, a medic, a car parking attendant or a bartender.

This allows plenty of people to see their favourite band without spending a penny (apart from £20 for a collapsing tent and £10 for a pint of lager onsite).

While you can expect a waiting list for many top festivals like Glastonbury (we’d advise putting your name down now if you want to go to Glastonbury 2018 on the cheap), some of the biggest festivals in the UK are still looking for help.

Stewarding:

A popular option is applying to DC Site Services who are currently still looking for staff at Latitude, as well as Boomtown Fair and even Leeds Festival.

Volunteering as a steward with DC Site Services means you will receive a staff wristband (which allows you to see any of the stages while not on shift), a spot on the securely guarded camping compound and access to the staff catering facilities i.e. food without the festival price tag.

Depending on the festival you apply for, you may be a steward at the gates, a traffic attendant or someone helping to direct people to stages.

A similar service is Festaff who are currently looking for help at Creamfields, Justin Bieber at Hyde Park, and Bestival, among many others.

Festaff offer a similar gig – providing its volunteers with a wristband and parking in return for shifts. Roles include bar assistants, info point attendants and general stewards.

(Image: Yui Mok)

If you’re looking to do a good deed while volunteering, Oxfam also offer stewarding roles with your work not only earning you a ticket but generating funds for the charity. Every summer an estimated £1,000,000 goes to help poverty-stricken communities thanks to the work of festival stewards.

Oxfam is currently seeking stewards for Reading and Leeds Festival, Shambala, Beautiful Days and many more. Successful applicants will need to pay a deposit that will be returned to them once they have completed their agreed shifts (this deposit ranges from £50 to £240 depending on the size and popularity of the festival).

Join the medical team:

If you have a medical qualification or if you’re a first aider, you can put your skills to good use with Festival Medical Services .

The charity provides medical assistance for festivals such as Glastonbury, Reading and Pride, and cover a range of services from emergency to first aid to physiotherapy and even dentistry.

With such an array of care on offer, FMS seek medical professionals from all sorts of fields from substance abuse workers to radiologists. They also seek members for their support team (volunteers who provide non-medical help such as porters and campsite crew).

In 2015, the charity attended some 330,000 people – of those, 6801 required medical assistance and only 93 had to be taken offsite for treatment. FMS put this down to the quality of its care and its ability to set up on onsite ‘hospital’ at big events.

Become a festival ambassador:

Finally, if you want the flexibility and time to see all your favourite bands without having to juggle shifts or being on call, why not become a festival ambassador?

Many big festivals offer you the chance to earn your ticket through selling tickets to your friends. Reading Festival , for example, gives its ambassadors a free ticket if they sell eight. Sell 16 and you get two free tickets, sell 24 and you get three tickets and a t-shirt, sell 32 and you get four free tickets plus side of stage assess for you and a plus one.